Kasztanka, Polish Marshal Józef Piłsudski's favorite combat mare, was stuffed upon her death in 1927 and after World War II was destroyed, allegedly on the orders of Piłsudski's enemy, Marshal Michał Rola-Żymierski.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Picture of the Week

I love to hike in the coastal hills south of San Francisco, indeed have hiked in them for most of my life. I can’t think of a better place to be than outdoors walking. Your senses seem to come alive, you feel the sun and the wind on your skin, the feel of the ground as you walk, you smell the plants and the earth, and you hear the sounds of the natural world. You’re more aware of your breathing and you feel your heart beating. Of course you cannot make people feel the same pleasure of a good hike but I thought I would share it in a small way with pictures I’ve taken on my little jaunts. I don’t know what this flower is called. I almost walked right by it without seeing it being as it is really only about the size of the tip of a pencil but a macro lens brings out the hidden beauty that would normally be missed. Clicking on the picture will give you the full size version.

5 Comments:

Hiking the California coast sounds wonderful, Rob. I just hike in pokey little New Jersey and with a hiking club, not by myself. If I tried that, I'd probably never get out of the woods.The tiny flower is beautiful. I don't know what it is, but it's not a hydrangea, which grow in profusion where I live near the shore. They like the sandy soil.

In mid-winter there's a waterfall on the trail up on Montara Mountain. This time of year it's absolutely dry.

This is about the time of year (rutting season) when the bucks come down from the hills to check out the does in the valleys. Last year a confused young buck followed me along the trail for a few hundred feet, trying to figure out if he should be interested in a human. And if there's a doe in the area the bucks will show some un-deerlike aggressiveness. Some days the fog shrouds the path and you can suddenly come across these beautiful creatures. Huge spider webs glisten and hang across the trails.

On the hots days the lizards scurry around in front of you on the trails. There are hawks that circle above in the sky, looking for the lizards, or better, a rabbit.

In a month or so the rains will begin. The foliage that has been drying and dying will begin plumping up again.

Passing through,No, this is a very tiny wildflower maybe about a sixteenth of an inch in diameter. Mimi,I’m sure New Jersey has some beautiful places to hike, I was actually born in Upstate New York so I know how lovely the Eastern U.S. can be. Bob,I have a pretty good picture of a Red tail hawk from the other day, I’ll post it next week. Definitely one of the neat things about hiking is seeing the wildlife. I’ve found myself very close to bobcats and coyotes several times which is always a thrill. Usually you only see the Red tails way up in the sky so finding one posing was a real treat. I haven’t run into a mountain lion because they avoid people like the plague, probably a good survival trait on their part but I keep hoping someday I’ll get a picture of one.